Tag Archives: United States Marines Corps

The United States Marine Corps on Monday 25 January stated it is sending two Lockheed Martin F-35Bs Lightning II to the UK this summer. The fighter jets will appear at two airshows in July, being the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford and the Farnborough International Airshow. The F-35’s appearance will make up for a ditched attempt two years ago.

The two airshows are both held in July and should also see participation of US Air Force F-35A variants. A total of five aircraft are expected to cross the Atlantic. The USMC reached Initial Operation Capability (IOC) in July 2015, whereas the US Air Force is still working towards IOC.

Dutch debut

Despite today’s announcement, it could very well be the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) that debuts the F-35A on its first international airshow. In May, the RNLAF plans to fly one of its two F-35As to the Netherlands for noise tesing and an airshow at Leeuwarden airbase, although nothing is certain yet. More on the Dutch visit is in this feature story at Airheadsfly.com.

What is certain, is the presence of two F-35As in Europe already. They are two aircraft produced at FNM Aeronautics’ Final Assembly and Check-Out (FACO) facility in Cameri, Italy. The first of those made its first flight on 7 September 2015. The Italians will fly at least one F-35 transatlantic to the US next month and have no known plans for participation in European airshows yet.

UPDATED 17 January | Rescue workers in Hawaii are still searching for two United States Marine Corps (USMC) CH-53 helicopters and their occupants following an apparent colission between the helos over the Pacific on Friday 15 January.

Update: No trace of the helicopters was found until Sunday 17 January. The Pentagon has released the names of those missing, while the search continues.

The two giant CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter are part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing and are based at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay. Both were on a routine training mission when they apparently collided just before midnight local time. Each helicopter carried six persons on board.

Debris is said to have been spotted, but no sign of survivors yet. Also, no mayday call was heard from the helicopters.